


Comfort Goes Both Ways

by Hamyheikki



Category: The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Night Terrors, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2020-01-16 15:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18524113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamyheikki/pseuds/Hamyheikki
Summary: Nine times Anima offered to comfort the members of her newfound family, and one time when they returned the favor.





	1. Otto & Jenna

**Author's Note:**

> Gift fic for @animathemutant, Jenna|Anima is their OC.

A crash from upstairs startled Jenna out of her light midnight slumber.

It did feel like she had been asleep for long. Her tendency to go to bed late was well known around the base, and more often than not her sleeping schedule was not in sync with the rest of the residents. It usually worked out, since she was in her deepest sleep state when the others woke up, therefore not likely to wakened by their morning routines. But now, when she had only just crossed the line to the land of dreams, she did open her eyes, blinking in the dim light of her room. She sat carefully, tilting her head from side to side. The noises had stopped, but even still she could hear the faint sound of feet tapping on the floor above, softened by the layer of concrete between the ceiling builds.

She could just ignore it. After all, it was highly unlikely that this was an intruder from outside, since their security systems were tailored by the two most brilliant technical minds of the century. It probably was either Max or Sandy sneaking up to get a snack in the middle of the night. Or Adrian wandering in the hallways, trying to run from his insomnia.

Still,  _if_ she’d leave it, there was no chance she would be able to fell asleep again. It couldn’t hurt to check.

Slipping out of her beddings, Jenna stood and pulled her used bathrobe on. She dashed up the stairs, hand skimming along the railing as she rounded the corner in the middle and came to a halt at the upper end. The corridor there was silent, lights turned on low to illuminate the narrow hallway where the rest of the team’s bedrooms were.

One of the doors was left ajar.

Octavius’ room.

Silently, Jenna walked over to it, pulling it slightly more open and taking a peek inside. There was a shadowy figure curled up tightly on the bed, a blanket tossed to the floor and pillow resting between the two piles of books set on the floor. Beside them was a broken lamp, the glass pieces shining gently when the light from the hallway hit them through the crack.

Well, that explained the crash.

Pushing the door open all the way, Jenna entered the room. She did press it shut after her, locking away the other side of the building, and effectively sealing them inside. It’d hopefully muffle their voices, should the doc be in a state of talking with her.

These things happened every now and then, usually after a stressful week or a big chance in their household. Otto would begin to have bad dreams, which would turn to proper nightmares and eventually morphed into night terrors. Jenna had heard them more than once, during her late night TV marathons, but until now she hadn’t paid them much mind since they hadn’t disturbed her personally. They all had their own demons to wrestle with, and it had become a sort of an unspoken agreement that if not stated otherwise, they’d respect each others personal space and politely look the other way.

But there was a line there. And this seemed to be a fitting night to cross it.

Keeping her steps light and quiet, she strolled across the room, only stopping once she was standing next to the bed. The lamp was in no condition to be saved, so she kicked it aside, making a mental note to try and collect the pieces come morning (she would most likely forget, but then again, Adrian was due to clean up the whole base soon anyway). The book pile was nearly toppled over as she sat down on the mattress, her leg brushing against them. They stayed upright, thankfully. She knew from her own experience that loud noises were not preferable right now.

Her hand steady, she shuffled a bit closer and set it down on top of the lump.

“Hey.” She made sure her tone remained even when she pulled her legs up, settling down sideways. “A rough night?”

There was no answer. The trembling figure of the man merely curled up tighter, rapid breathing echoing in the room. No matter, she hadn’t exactly been waiting for a confirmation.

“It’s a real pain in the ass, yeah? Just keeps on going, and there’s really nothing to be done to make it stop, y’know?” Glancing sideways, she could see the shaking had lessened somewhat. A fine start. “But lemme tell you something, doc; it will pass. Not right away, but eventually.” She squirmed into a more comfortable position, carefully pushing her back against Otto’s heaving one. “And until then, you just bite down and bear with it. Or that’s what the brothers from Asgard told me, anyway...” The memory of the long nights spent talking with them over the years sent a spear of longing into her chest.

A muffled noise, a borderline sob, emerged from the heap. Jenna tactfully pretended she hadn’t heard anything. Perhaps she should have grabbed her own blanket, before she rushed in? One with the weights on it. She couldn’t be certain if it would be any use for the doctor, but it never hurt to try. She’d bring it next time, for she took a guess this most likely would be repeated sometime in the future.

Not that she minded. Not when it was a member of her family in distress.

The bedroom was starting to grow warm now, what with the door being pulled shut and the fact that they were sharing some body heat between them. Instead of breaking the contact, Jenna turned over and rested her head against Otto’s back. In the silence, she could hear the way his heart thumped, the pace of it beginning to slow down little by little as the terrors hold of him vanished.

In the darkness, she almost jumped when an uneven voice spoke out.

“What if one can’t endure it until then?”

The slight crack in the middle of the sentence made Jenna’s stomach lurch.

Despite knowing it was a modest consolation, she pressed closer.

“That’s when you call for help.”

The silence washed over them for a second time that night. It went on and on, the tension in Otto’s body coming and going as the hours rolled by. There were some wet hiccups, a moments where he chose to break the contact, but in the end he always shifted back, more relaxed every time.

They did not fell asleep properly, at least Jenna didn’t. Otto might have dosed off for a few short periods, but all and all it was a sleepless night. So when the first rays of sun forced their way through the small window at the back wall, Jenna couldn’t help but feel a mild wave of relief.

Beside her, laying still and a bit tense on the bed, Otto stirred from what appeared to be a mild slumber. Blinking few times in the sudden sunlight, he made a frantic gesture towards the night desk, hands searching for something.

Jenna perked up at the movement. “Oh, you want your glasses?” They had fallen off during the night, ending up on the floor from where Jenna now picked them up, handing them to the tired man sitting across from her.

“Thank you.” His eyes were unfocused and ringed with dark circles, but the wary smile he offered was genuine. “And... I do appreciate...” he trailed off, gaze darting downwards. With a wide grin of her own, Jenna clasped a hand over one of his shoulders and gave it a firm squeeze.

“Anytime.”

As they both turned to get up and on the move, a slight chance in the air made them stop.

Otto frowned. “... It might be the sleep deprivation, but do you smell -”

“Smoke!” Quickly taking a look at the phone on doctor’s desk, Jenna let out a gasp, causing Otto’s eyes to widen as well.

“What? Are the fire systems intact?” he asked, struggling to sit up properly. Before he could get his balance working, Jenna was already racing out from the room, waving the cell in the air as she went.

“It’s Max’s turn to cook!”

Oh dear.

The blanket on the floor nearly tripped Otto over in his haste.

“The fire extinguisher is by the corner closet!”


	2. Max & Jenna

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt was for Jenna to comfort Max during a panic attack.  
> Jenna as a character belongs to @animathemutant

They hadn’t been driving for long. The road they had just turned to was close to the college, a few streets away in fact, despite being a rather busy one with more trucks than sedans. It wasn’t a rush hour by any means, so the road ahead was pretty much clear to go. 

When the speed picked up, Jenna glanced up from her phone, raising an eyebrow. “Are we in a hurry?” She pushed herself up a bit, taking a look at the speedometer. “You’re not late from a date or something, right?”

Beside her, Max switched gears with ease, never taking his eyes off the road. “What? We’re going like, 10 over the limit? On a basically empty road.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s Adrie’s car though.”

The next shift of speed was more hesitant. “... He isn’t gonna find out.”

Leaning back and kicking her feet up to the dashboard (like the warning picture told  _ not  _ to), Jenna hummed, her gaze fixed on the phone again. “Hmm, could be. Or the old man has rigged this thing to show him exactly what goes on in it when he isn’t driving it himself.”

It wasn’t too far fetch of an idea. Fooling around with a car of an engineer did come with it’s own hazards, if you stopped and thought about it. Slowly, Max lifted off his feet, letting the car ease down to a speed within the road’s limit. He couldn’t help but give a careful look at the gas meter as well, just to make sure there was still fuel in the tank when they’d bring the vehicle back. 

The last time he’d forgotten, Adrian had made him scrub the whole thing clean. Had taken him an entire afternoon, and he wasn’t too keen on having to repeat that experience. 

Luckily there was still a fair amount left, and he sighed with relief. “Well the limit is dropping anyway.” He steered the car to a lane on their left, easing the gas some more. “And if you keep on backseat driving, you might as well hop behind the wheel yourself! I have homework I could be doing.”

That made Jenna laugh out loud, her phone set down for good as she turned to give an unbelieving smirk to her driver. “That’s such bullshit! Like you’d ever do your work before the deadline.”

Max sniffed. “I  _ could  _ have read the first chapter.”

“Like hell you would.”

The row of cars before them had grown longer during their bickering. Where a moment ago there had only been three or four truck ahead, now seven more had appeared, and the speed of the whole lane had slowed down considerably. Perhaps that was for the best, a speeding ticket was the last thing he needed when his money problems were already catching up to him (buying new books as the semester started was always such a pain for his wallet). Moving along the minimalistic traffic, they made their way past a car parked to the narrow sideline, a small construction site to their right, and what seemed to be a non-functioning tin police just after it.

And then there was...

“Anyway, I  _ asked  _ you if I should drive before we left, and you said -”

He couldn’t slow down anymore. There was a row of cars forming behind him, and the route to his left was filling up. The grip he had of the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles turning white without him noticing.

“ - such a shame you didn’t see it, I mean the guy was asking for it, honestly -”

Alright. It was just a tunnel. A long, badly-lit tunnel where there were cars all around him, walls that didn’t feel stable enough to support the weight of the ground surrounding them...

“But if you ask me, the teacher didn’t pay enough attention when the -”

He felt sick. A mouthful of bile was creeping up his throat, the burning sensation causing him to swallow again and again. It didn’t work, his mouth was too dry and his palm began to slide on the leather of the wheel as the sweat tainted the leather. The thumping of his heart was so loud, he wondered if Jenna was able to hear it through the thin fabric of his shirt. 

They were there. The car snaked forward, entering the dim hallway full of movement. Cars, lights, pillars rushed past them. It didn’t feel like they were going fast, and yet the bottom of his stomach lurched every time he tried to move his gaze onward. Had the ceiling been that low at the opening end? It seemed lower. Much, much lower. There was a new sound as well, a puffing of some sort, like air being pushed in and out in a rapid pace -

_ “Dude, you okay?” _

A hand on his arm startled him. With a jerky move, he changed his grasp on the wheel. 

The car took a swing to the left.

“Max, what the hell?!” It was only after Jenna raised her voice that he snapped his head up completely, regaining his composure long enough for him to release a shaky breath. She was staring at him, eyes wide and her other hand tangled around the handle above her door.

Max blinked, head feeling heavy when he looked back to the road. “I... That’s...” Another forceful swallow, resolving nothing. “Uhh...”

The soft, even voice broke through to him once more. 

“Pull over, Maxie. There’s an empty space right there.”

It took some doing, but eventually he managed to get his trembling hands to steer the car to the shoulder beside the road. Shutting the engine down, he left the keys into the ignition. After he was sure they were truly stopped moving, he teared his fingers from around the wheel, setting his hands down. His head was soon to follow, slumping towards his chest when a shuddering whine escaped him.

“S-sorry, that... I shouldn’t have done that, sorry...”

He flinched a bit when a warm hand made contact with his back, starting to rub a soothing circle between his shoulder blades. The motion made his breath run easier, prompting the shakiness of his hands spreading to his body. He didn’t mind, not now. Unconsciously, he leaned to the touch, pressing his chin against his heaving chest. 

“Jaw up, Maxie. Deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth, yeah?”

Short instructions were easy enough to follow. Little by little his panting calmed down, and although the trembling remained, it became manageable fairly soon. The sweat in the back of his neck would trouble him in a second, but right then he couldn’t care less. 

When it seemed as though Max had made it through the worst of it, Jenna curled her fingers around his elbow again, nudging him to move. “Okay, so there’s gonna be a change of seats happening here. Can you scoot over if I climb to the backseat for a bit?”

It must have been a sight if one was to witness it from outside the vehicle. In a chaos of feet and arms, Jenna tumbled over to the space between the front seats and the back, making way for Max to move over to the passenger’s seat. When there was enough room for her to move again, she slithered her body over the driver’s seat (hitting her head on the roof as she went, but what can you do?) and dropped onto her new spot.

A quick look let her know that Max had already pulled on his seat belt. He was leaning against the window for a support, eyes staring a bit too blankly for Jenna’s liking. And well, she couldn’t have  _ that _ .

“... wanna go and get some frozen yogurt on the way?”

She pretended like she hadn’t heard the silent wet sniff, and waited patiently. After a while the atmosphere calmed further. She glanced to her right, noticing the way Max had angled himself away for now. Which was fine, really. No need to rush. 

It didn’t take too long after that when Max cleared his throat. There was a tiny nod, and he lifted his feet off the floor and onto the seat with him. 

“Can you order for me?”

Jenna smiled, turning the engine back on and smoothly driving them back to the main lane.

“Sure thing.”


	3. Flint & Jenna

The base had been silent for couple of hours already. Doc and Adrian had gone out for the night, Alex was lounging around in the living room, and nobody was quite sure where Max was. The young man had most likely slipped out earlier that day, spending his time in the city’s streets as a way to unwind from the stress that inexorably built up in their shared home every now and then.

Walking through the noiseless corridors, Jenna found herself enjoying the rare moment of peace. Her day hadn’t been going as planned. The morning had been wasted in a failed attempt to build up some muscle in the house’s gym (she found herself too tired to give it her all, and had stopped soon after), lunch had passed by without her even noticing, and now, when the corridors started to dim in the fading light, her steps took her to the hallway of bedrooms. They each had their own, even though some preferred to share one. Otto and Adrian, apparently, had their own, but since neither of them tended to sleep at nights, nobody was quite certain when exactly had either of them actually laid down in theirs. Jenna relished the chance to get some sleep herself, her eyelashes starting to droop as she dragged her feet along the floor tiles. 

She came to a sudden stop when a silent noise, one she couldn’t immediately recognize, came out through one of the doors to her left. A wobbly sort of sound, just strong enough to carry itself over the humming of the air conditioning and Jenna’s own steps.

With a tilt of her head, she turned around slowly, trying to determinate where the noise was actually coming from. After a while of hesitation, she rested a hand on top of a doorknob leading to Flint’s room. 

There weren’t any light, when she pushed the door open. Curtains had been pulled over the windows, blocking out the gentle glow of the street lights. No lamps were turned on, but despite the tall shadows looming over the corners of the whole room, Jenna could make out a figure sitting hunched on the bed. She kept her pace even when she crossed the floor, glancing down every now and then to make sure not to stumble on the clutter littering the carpet.

As she halted at a step’s distance away from the bed, she cleared her throat and leaned in.

“Uhh... Hey. Everything cool?”

Internally grimacing at her own clunky opening, she took a seat next to the silent man, leaving few feet of space between them out of respect. Flint was not the type of guy to act like this out of nowhere, and the fact that he hadn’t yet acknowledged her awkward intrusion made her all the more worried. 

“Sure is a quiet night today. Everyone else seem to be out and about.” 

... It wasn’t getting any better then. She sighed. “Look, it’s obviously not my business, but I heard you from the hallway, and thought -”

“Yeah. I figured so.” 

The rough edge in the voice made Jenna look up. Flint had moved his posture, and as he leaned back, she could see he was holding something. A small object, barely visible within his large hands. But she had sharp eyes, and the shape of an old doll didn’t escape her notice. 

She had spent enough time with the Six to know the most likely story behind it.

“How old was she when you left?”

The figure next to her tensed up. 

Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth again. “Did she ever saw it? Like was it a birthday gift, or...?”

She knew, from the pained past of her own, that asking these things was perhaps not the way to go. Not to everyone. But in the dark, deadly-quiet base inhabited by criminals, she felt she could be forgiven her curiosity. It wasn’t as if they had others to do the prying for them. “It is a nice doll. Must have been expensive.”

“I’d really prefer not to talk about it.” The tall man shifted his weight slightly, curling his fingers more tightly over the toy. A nearly inaudible mutter was almost drown out by the rustle of the sheets. “She never got to see it.”

The room fell into silence, the two figures sitting side by side on the bed. Jenna’s eyes, squinting in the lack of light, stayed glued to the doll resting in the shivering hands.

An idea was born in an instant, and was spoken out soon after.

“... I could get it to her.”

Flint’s head snapped up, a stunned look crossing his face. “What?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ve got some errands to run outside anyway, and... I could just drop it off in her mailbox or something.” The longer he stared at her, the more hesitant she grew. “It’s just an idea, y’know! An offer that stands, even if you don’t want to do it right now -”

A piece of paper pressed into her hand stopped her from going on. A cursive handwriting, decorative and faded with time, was almost impossible to read, but she managed. After a moment of scrutiny, it became clear that it was, indeed, an address. One that was, without a doubt, been looked at multiple times during the passing years.

“She is usually at home when it’s weekend.”

Jenna glanced at the man beside her, and nodded. He wasn’t looking at her, but that hardly mattered as the tiny, worn-out doll was trusted upon her. Up close, it was easy to see the toll years had taken, but it was in a good condition. You could see it had been taken care of. Spotless fabric, stitches kept intact.

A well loved memento.

Without saying a word, Jenna took the toy and wrapped it carefully into a pillowcase she’d picked up from the floor. However, before she could leave a gentle hand, warm and secure, landed on her shoulder.

A voice, more quieter than Jenna had ever heard it, spoke out. 

“Thank you.”

She didn’t turn, merely planted her own hand on top of the trembling one.

“Anytime.”


End file.
